DOI issue:
No. 327 (June 1920)
DOI article:Valotaire, Marcel: Auguste Brouet, painter-etcher
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21360#0142
AUGUSTE BROUET, PAINTER-ETCHER
"l’antiquaire.” etch-
ing BY AUGUSTE BROUET
observation every day, and whose charac-
teristics he was perfectly familiar with
before he sketched them. Here he has
done no more than follow the example of
his illustrious forerunners, Rembrandt and
Whistler, both of whom took delight in
recording, in exquisite little plates, types
and scenes from the life of the people, o
The poor of Brouet, let it be said,
provoke neither pity nor sorrow. He is an
artist and only an artist; he sees, and
renders what he sees. These famished
and tattered people of the streets—are they
really sad themselves i Certainly not. If
life is often hard for them they bear the
burden not without philosophy, and they
are not strangers to laughter and song.
Brouet has not fallen into a very common
error, for which an inopportune philan-
thropy is responsible ; his poor are more
true to life and more beautiful for not
being at all “ down in the mouth/' a
136
Still keeping to the same locality, Brouet
has portrayed the gipsies, the pedlars, the
acrobats, and the travelling circuses that
haunt these parts. And elsewhere, having
had occasion to work with a ballet-girl as
model, he has done a number of studies of
dancers which are distinguished alike by
purity of line and by truthfulness of vision*
In treating all these subjects in their
various stages of progress, Brouet is not
guided by any hard-and-fast method*
Sometimes, in the case of a single figure,,
his sureness of hand enables him to make
his drawing direct upon the copper. At
other times—in his street scenes, for
example—he makes his composition either
by the aid of sketches jotted down hastily
on some scrap of paper or from more
finished drawings which are in themselves
complete works of art. Then, in attacking
the copper, he uses only very exceptionally
the mezzotint process or maniere noire ;
"l’antiquaire.” etch-
ing BY AUGUSTE BROUET
observation every day, and whose charac-
teristics he was perfectly familiar with
before he sketched them. Here he has
done no more than follow the example of
his illustrious forerunners, Rembrandt and
Whistler, both of whom took delight in
recording, in exquisite little plates, types
and scenes from the life of the people, o
The poor of Brouet, let it be said,
provoke neither pity nor sorrow. He is an
artist and only an artist; he sees, and
renders what he sees. These famished
and tattered people of the streets—are they
really sad themselves i Certainly not. If
life is often hard for them they bear the
burden not without philosophy, and they
are not strangers to laughter and song.
Brouet has not fallen into a very common
error, for which an inopportune philan-
thropy is responsible ; his poor are more
true to life and more beautiful for not
being at all “ down in the mouth/' a
136
Still keeping to the same locality, Brouet
has portrayed the gipsies, the pedlars, the
acrobats, and the travelling circuses that
haunt these parts. And elsewhere, having
had occasion to work with a ballet-girl as
model, he has done a number of studies of
dancers which are distinguished alike by
purity of line and by truthfulness of vision*
In treating all these subjects in their
various stages of progress, Brouet is not
guided by any hard-and-fast method*
Sometimes, in the case of a single figure,,
his sureness of hand enables him to make
his drawing direct upon the copper. At
other times—in his street scenes, for
example—he makes his composition either
by the aid of sketches jotted down hastily
on some scrap of paper or from more
finished drawings which are in themselves
complete works of art. Then, in attacking
the copper, he uses only very exceptionally
the mezzotint process or maniere noire ;